The Quality Handbook for Health Care Organizations

Book excerpt: The Quality Handbook for Health Care Organizations This important book is a practical, theory-based resource on the topic of health care quality management written for health care administrators and practitioners. It offers the tools needed to help managers make decisions, prioritize resources (financial and human), and analyze and improve the care they deliver. The Handbook offers a hands-on approach to specific topics such as the implementation of managerial goals, instructions for developing accurate measurements for evaluating care, the utilization of data as a basis for process improvement, exploration of quality management tools and techniques, guidelines for the complex integration of collaborative services in health care, and methods for effective communication and improving accountability. In addition, the book is filled with illustrative examples of methods for ensuring appropriate oversight of clinical and quality activities, offers solutions for addressing and preventing adverse events, and explores the important people-to-people interactions that ultimately define excellence in medical care. Praise for The Quality Handbook for Health Care Organizations "The Quality Handbook for Health Care Organizations offers students of health care policy and management a unique opportunity to learn firsthand from one of the nation’s leading experts in health care quality. Dr. Dlugacz’s passion for promoting the highest ideals of quality in health care should inspire future generations of health care professionals." –Alan M. Leiken, chair, Department of Health Care Policy and Management, School of Health Care Policy and Management, School of Health Technology and Management, Health Sciences Center, State University of New York at Stony Brook "This outstanding book combines both the quantitative aspects of data collection and analysis with the critical human behaviors that make up a health care institution’s culture. Only when these two factors combine do true ‘quality’ decisions and patient care result." –Stuart R. Levine, author, The Six Fundamentals of Success "The Quality Handbook reflects the authors’ combination of technical know-how, years of experience, and the enthusiasm for the complex challenge of their work." –Margaret E. O’Kane, president, National Committee of Quality Assurance